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This is Love

by Rumi
Translated by R. A. Nicholson (1898) · From Dīvāni Shamsi Tabrīz

This is Love: to fly heavenward,
To rend, every instant, a hundred veils.
The first moment, to renounce Life:
The last step, to feel without feet.
To regard this world as invisible,
Not to see what appears to one's self.
"O heart," I said, "may it bless thee
To have entered the circle of lovers,
To look beyond the range of the eye,
To penetrate the windings of the bosom!
Whence did this breath come to thee, O my soul,
Whence this throbbing, O my heart?"

This poem and this translation are in the public domain. Source text: Project Gutenberg.

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